Low: Classic or classic?

afaik I've never listened to a Low song in my life before today but decided to try Double Negative since it won the yearly poll here. holy shit is it good. need to make my second listen a proper one, feel like there's so much detail in these tracks

If you like this one there is lots of Low you'll likely also like, though no other Low is quite like this.

heh, yeah i had a similar post in the works

Low: Recommended if you like: Low

they're a fun band to get into at this stage, i imagine, because they've been consistently good and their catalog is large

Actually, the number of albums they have was sort of preventing me from even starting, but after hearing this, I'll definitely dive into more

idk that I'd ever describe getting into Low as "fun" but there's really no bad points of entry, other than The Invisible Way (and even that one has some gems)

It''s a good question, though. If you are a fan of the most recent album, which is probably their most challenging album, which album do you go to next? Ones and Sixes? Drums and Guns? Things We Lost in the Fire?

D&G seems the most logical to me. I consider O&S mostly just a lesser, dry run for Double Negative now

I'll try Drums and Guns next, but I think I'll want to listen to Double Negative many more times first!

no ones and sixes is almost equally amazing!!!

It has some great songs but some filler too ("Kid in the Corner")

Considering Double Negative is a fairly big departure for the group, I recommend you go to "Things We Lost in the Fire" next - one of the best versions of more typical Low. Just prepare yourself that it's not going to be all distorted and fragmented the way DN is. But assuming you dig that too, then you know you can move freely about their discography and let them surprise you. They have albums that are softer, and albums that are edgier.

I think if your departure point is the new album and you dig into their discography in search of something similar, you're setting yourself up for disappointment--which would be very sad because there are very few disappointing moments in their 25 years' worth of albums! But even a more anxious/dark album like Drums & Guns is not like Double Negative.

Yeah I definitely want to check out Things We Lost, I know everyone loves that one. The distorted production on DN is definitely part of what's appealing to me, but I think the way the sounds are applied, the song construction, is also quite unique, so I'm interested to hear whatever people like from this band (which sounds like most of their work)

There's very, very little from this band that isn't that great, and what little there is that isn't that great is only not that great compared to all their great stuff. Which is most of it. I mean, honestly, you can probably start with the first album and see what you think, since I can't imagine someone disliking that album but liking the rest.

amazing how their sound went from minimalist to maximalist up to The Great Destroyer, and then expanded in other directions from there

Silver Rider is one of my favorite tracks of theirs

Longtime fan of Low, also a huge fan of the new record. My ranking of their records certainly finds one era of theirs at the bottom (don't have much use for TIW, Cmon, or TGD, though love D&G), but I love tracks from each other those records, too. Low are easily my favorite "band" of all time.

Re: records that folks new to them should check out if they like DN, I actually think that 'Trust' is the record from another era that is most similar to DN in terms of feel, its brilliant mixture of minimalism and threateningly ominous production (claustrophobic, almost) really making it and D&G the obvious predecessors to Double Negative.

The show in late November that I went to was pretty good, but nothing beats my first Low concert:

it was my 18th birthday and I saw them support 'Trust' (which might explain why it is my 2nd favorite Low record) in the basement of Oberlin College's student union. At one point, Alan asked the audience not to yell out curse words because their kids were with them on tour.

Mark Eitzel opened, supporting 'The Invisible Man.'

Both put on an incredible show, but I still can remember Alan and Mimi harmonizing on 'Sunflower' and just losing it. No 'popular' music had ever made me cry up until then.

They have so many great great covers, but I think about this one a lot, given how far it departs from the original, but also because of that nice warm drone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FHBxseoXvc

that sounds amazing

xp

xp. It really was. Eitzel was also in top form that night. He did a very wild acoustic guitar version of "The Boy With The Hammer in the Paper Bag" that was like 8 or 9 minutes long? Really great.

There aren't any bad Low records, really - some stand as front-to-back complete works that are genuinely hard to pick apart (Double Negative, Things We Lost in the Fire, Trust), and those (Invisible Way, Ones & Sixes, Secret Name) with some highs and some less-than-highs. The band seem to have a self-awareness of this too which makes their concerts never fail to deliver.

I always felt Invisible Way got its reputation unfairly at the time from not pushing too many boundaries - return to more often than I do C'mon.

Agree that IW is maybe too maligned but I really love C’mon.

If you listen to Drums & Guns, then watch the documentary, then listen to C’mon... the documentary is so raw and you see Alan at such a low point. In the wake of that, I feel like C’mon is this beautiful attempt to return to the light. Mimi’s songs are so strong, Alan’s still raw but more hopeful.

huh I've always considered Secret Name one of their classics

Throw a dart, really.

you can’t go wrong with any Low album imo. Lost a bit in the discussion is how much of a classic their debut remains, and Long Division + The Curtain Hits the Cast are both absurdly good too.

Most bands would be happy with those three as their peaks.

C'mon was the one I was least impressed with when it came out but I listened to it the other day and I don't know what my problem was really

I think The Curtain Hits the Cast is my favorite. It's the one that I return to the most.

but except for IW, any album is fine imo. (IW sounds like a Wilco record, other than a track or two is kind of useless to me tbh)

one interesting thing is that i was obsessed with Low when I was around 19/20, had Lifetime and all the records, etc.... but then TGD came out and i HATED it. like couldn't believe how bad it was.

almost ten years passed by until i listened to it again, and i think that i was more than a little too attached to what i'd come to expect from them. now i think it rates higher than the rest of the records from that time period except D&G.

I started listening to them with Secret Name, an incredible album, but thought Things We Lost in the Fire was their peak. Then I was unexpectedly floored by The Great Destroyer. Now think Double Negative is their real peak

one interesting thing is that i was obsessed with Low when I was around 19/20, had Lifetime and all the records, etc.... but then TGD came out and i HATED it. like couldn't believe how bad it was.

almost ten years passed by until i listened to it again, and i think that i was more than a little too attached to what i'd come to expect from them. now i think it rates higher than the rest of the records from that time period except D&G.

― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Sunday, May 19, 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I had a similar experience. I went from being total obsessive completist--every 7", every comp appearance--to being lukewarm on Trust and really not into TGD. Wasn't swayed by D&G at first but came around to it. But altogether probably 8 years went by where I didn't listen to very much Low, they became relegated to a past version of myself. And somewhere between D&G and C'mon I dove back into the early stuff and gave the later albums a new try... now I'm back to being obsessive fan again.

the first time i saw them live was in 2002 and the opener tom liwa who used to be my favourite german songwriter announced them as the best band in the world and i thought he was exaggerating a little but finally i have come to the conclusion that he was probably right, for the last couple of years they have been my fave live band in the world. they have got the capability to create a spiritual atmosphere of total silence and attentiveness like few other bands. i have seen them four times but they never played the song which made me discover them though i asked for it once. their awesome cover of transmission.

For the curious, here's the Japanese bonus track for Double Negative, "It's All Been Done" (not a BNL cover)

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/a54e5fdcb22da36762c6f2a7fd37ce5020190619124804/5f6be5594d1d83bd92aa4a5f4ec28ba720190619124804/e23590

Listened to Drums and Guns next after the recommendations here, and wow. It's compelling in a very different way from Double Negative. Last three tracks in particular are stunning. At this point, I'm gonna eventually listen to all their albums but next up is Ones and Sixes because a) Spotify has it (some of the other Low albums are missing) and b) Brad's taste rarely steers wrong

yesterdays glastonbury set for those who can access it:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p07df5f6/glastonbury-low-live-at-glastonbury

shivers. low are extraordinary. amazing footage!

Alan, Mimi and Steve Garrington doing a Velvet Underground tribute show on the 50th anniversary of the Velvets only Minneapolis show, October 12, 1969 at the Labor Temple:

http://thehookmpls.com/event/the-velvets-50/

that sounds great. i wish i could go but 5000 miles or something like that seems a bit too much.

I might actually go to this! I'll be in Chicago around that time.

got my ticket!

Should have linked this earlier -- very good podcast episode/radio documentary on them from a month back:

https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2019/08/07/the-current-rewind-low-duluth-sparhawk-parker

Cool

haha the mentions of starfire in that podcast. that's neat. it put me back onto 'secret name'. low give me so much hope.

how have i not heard the bombscare EP until now! what!

JUST IN: 'Bombscare EP' by Low & Spring Heel Jack

Low have just reissued their collaborative EP with left-field group Spring Heel Jack!

An underrated little record from the acclaimed slowcore group and their musical mates:@lowthebandhttps://t.co/ssGZJ2O6iD

— Norman Records (@normanrecords) October 3, 2019

haha, i must have summoned that. i'd better put the lottery on.

I believe soundslike summoned that one

The version of "Disarray" they played last night was like the best 10 minutes of live music I've ever heard.